Someone Should Tell the Florida GOP ...

... about the Streisand Effect. Per CBS News:

The Republican Party of Florida filed suit on Friday against the Florida Democratic Party, many of its candidates, and a slew of television stations, seeking to stop the airing of a political ad that highlights the leaked grand jury presentment in the Hope Florida scandal.

The scandal, for those not following it:

A grand jury found that several Florida Republican figures conspired to steal $10 million in taxpayer money, route it through a charity operated by the state's first lady, and use it to rig an election. In addition to Casey DeSantis, the conspirators included Ashley Moody (then the state's attorney general, now a US Senator) and James Uthmeier (who is the state's attorney general now, but at the time of the theft operated the PACs that the laundered money went to).

The lawsuit comes after a court "expunged" the grand jury report.

But expungement doesn't change the facts.

The facts being that a grand jury found that several Florida Republican figures conspired to steal $10 million in taxpayer money, route it through a charity operated by the state's first lady, and use it to rig an election.

Not only is the lawsuit frivolous and vexatious on its face, but it will just result in more people noticing that a grand jury found that several Florida Republican figures conspired to steal $10 million in taxpayer money, route it through a charity operated by the state's first lady, and use it to rig an election.

Wordle 1949 Hint

Hint: To take something, with a sort of violent twisting motion.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: W

Green Card Holders and Voting

Per The Guardian:

The US Department of Justice has filed criminal charges against 28 green card holders in California accused of fraudulently registering to vote and casting illegal ballots. ... A justice department spokesperson said 21 of the 28 defendants had cast unlawful ballots.

If they did, I have no sympathy for them. US Citizenship and Immigration Services expressly informs green card applicants that "[p]ermanent residents cannot vote in federal, state, or local elections." Do the crime, do the time.

As for registration, given that so many states have "motor voter" laws that may automatically register people who get drivers' licenses, etc., I'd say the criterion for prosecution should be "did this person actually vote or attempt to vote?" It's entirely possible that a green card holder gets a driver's license, gets automatically registered due to government error, and never even notices, let alone tries to use the registration to actually vote.

A lot of the news coverage of such things, including the story linked above, asserts that "[v]oting by noncitizens is extremely rare," and that seems to be the case.

In fact, this set of arrests tends to confirm that. California claims 22 million registered voters. The US Department of Justice has been able to find a whopping 21 alleged non-citizen voters. That's less than 1 in a million registered voters. Have any statewide elections in California ever been decided by one one-millionth of votes cast? Or even by, say, 21 votes?